Fall

The leaves change and all of a sudden my life has never seemed so wonderful!

Caitlin, Trevor and I had a picnic up the canyon one Sunday when the season was turning. Sometimes I feel that the spirit is strongest when I’m surrounded by nature and family. Probably was the best way I could have spent a Sunday in October…

“Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need.”

- Elder Richard G. Scott

Someday

This is my brother in-law when he saw my sister in her wedding dress for the first time:

I can’t get over it.

Through the Years…

My sister Caitlin is getting married tomorrow!! We’re very, very close and so this is a little bit more bittersweet than when my other sisters got married. Caitlin has been my life-long buddy. She has always been my biggest example.  Although we’ve always been pretty different, I’ve always wanted to be just like her. Just look at all the adventures we’ve had together!

I Climbed The Great Wall!

I consider this to be one of my greatest achievements in life! That was hard work!

Here are pictures (to prove it) and some interesting facts:

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups.

The Great Wall of China is one the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World.

The Great Wall of China is 25 feet high in some places and ranges from 15-30 feet wide.

During its construction, the Great Wall was called “the longest cemetery on earth” because so many people died building it. It cost the lives of more than one million people.

The main wall is around 2,145 miles long with an extra 1,770 miles of branches and spurs.

The manpower to build the Great Wall came from frontier guards, peasants, unemployed intellectuals, disgraced noblemen, and convicts.

Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.

Facts taken from http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/04/18_great-wall.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

Buddhist Temples and The Yellow Crane Tower

There’s this joke going around my friends that I’m an inactive member of the church now and I’ve become either Buddhist or Catholic… well I did go to a Buddhist Temple in China and participated in a Catholic service at Westminster Abbey in London… not to mention that I’ve only been to church 3 times this summer. Anyway…

Sometimes in China, when we weren’t rehearsing, we didn’t have anything to do besides shop. Well eventually we got a little sick of shopping (even though the deals there are outstanding). We were walking down a street one day and found a Buddhist Temple!! We were pretty stoked.

 

We climbed that huge tower by the way.

The Yellow Crane Tower is one of the “Four Great Towers” in China. Although I consider Wuhan not to be a tourist city, this was probably the most “tourist-y” thing there. We were still the only white people and had the Chinese coming up and wanting pictures with us so maybe it is only a big deal in China.

Now I’ve had my fair share of climbing things this summer and this Tower was one of them. Here’s the view from the top:

 

(China is really smoggy)

It was actually our last day in Wuhan that we went to the tower and when we looked over the city, we could point out all the places that we had been and it was so neat. I really felt a part of China in that moment.

I miss it.

Marisa turns 18!?

I have pretty awesome friends and family. In fact,  I don’t think they could be better. My sister Caitlin came home for the weekend. I imagined we would catch up, mess around, and watch a movie together. Instead, she became the culprit in planning my very own surprise party.
I was shocked.

 

Some people brought presents…. Oreos were the most popular. I didn’t realize I talked about them that much

My very best friend, Miss Kelsee Jackson made me this fabulous t-shirt composed of a few of our favorite inside jokes. This girl is amazing.

                    

There was a lot of food and a lot of mess. I found it just slightly ridiculous that I had to clean up from the party that I didn’t plan on my birthday.

Rude.

I’m so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

The next day Caitlin gave a missionary fireside for the youth in our ward and then we partied….
Mom is dang attractive. :)

Brian Regan tickets!

BYU T-shirt. My future school!

Finally a new violin case. It’s beautiful.

It’s hard to believe that I’m 18 and will be graduating soon. It was a bitter-sweet birthday for my family considering I’m the last child and will be leaving home to live an “adult” life soon. I’m so thankful for friends, family, teachers, and leaders who have helped me become the person to survive the world ahead of me.

Some things I can do now that I’m 18:

Buy dry ice
Vote
Get arrested
Skydive
Order products off infomercials (I’m honestly worried about this one)
Get a Blockbuster membership
Drive any time of day/night
Buy a monkey
Rent a port-a-potty
Get married (FINALLY!)
Buy a house/Rent apartment
Drive an ice cream truckBecome an undercover cop
Sue someone
Get sued
Go to a tanning bed without permission
Get a tattoo… (I’ve been waiting for this…)
Get divorced (In case the getting married thing doesn’t work out)

My to-do list just got a lot bigger :)